Lithuanian

About the Lithuanian language

Lithuanian is the official language of Lithuania and has around 4 million native speakers worldwide. Three quarters of these live in Lithuania itself and the remainder in Belarus, Latvia, Poland, Kaliningrad, and in other emigrant communities around the world.

Lithuanian is a Baltic language, part of the Indo-European group, and is closely related to Latvian.

So why learn Lithuanian?

Travel
Since its independence from the Soviet Union, Lithuania has become a popular tourist destination, particularly its capital, Vilnius. Even a basic knowledge of Lithuanian will make a visit more enjoyable.

Friendship and relationships
Since independence, greater movement of people from Lithuania to other Western European countries, mainly for work reasons, has led to wider possibilities for friendship and relationships.

A linguistic challenge
As a direct descendent from the original Indo-European language, Lithuanian shares many similarities in vocabulary with other languages in this group, including interestingly Latin.